Growing up I was lucky enough to have my family
surround me at all times. From every honor award ceremony to every birthday
party, my loud and crazy family was there at all times. Of all the people that
surrounded me on a day-to-day basis, one member in particular will always stand
out more than the others. That person is my grandmother, Mercedes (woman in picture to left). We
may not be related by blood, but that’s not what matters. She always treated me
as if I’m her own and I have never looked at her as anything less than a
grandmother, if anything she’s more than that.
It is because of her that I have been dreaming
of becoming a nurse for as long as I can remember. My whole life I would hear
stories about how she saved peoples lives and no matter what the circumstances
were she was always say that she loved what she did. After almost forty years
as a Registered Nurse she has decided to retire wishing she could continue to
work. She has been such an inspiration to me and has set the bar very high to
live up to.
Proceeding right after her retirement was when I
started my own personal journey through nursing school. Now, being only a few
weeks into it, I’ve felt so many different emotions ranging from extremely scared
to overly excited and all the other feelings that fall somewhere in between. Every
time I feel all those emotions, which I’m sure every one of us has felt at some
point, my first instinct is to call her, and every time she knows exactly what
to say. One time in particular I was telling her overwhelmed I felt with all
the assignments that were required of us nursing students, and she looked at me
and said “Alyssa, I finished nursing school with two babies and no money to
support them. If I can do that, you can do with no problem.” Of course, she
says the perfect thing and now that’s all I tell myself whenever I get overwhelmed.
My grandmother has been my inspiration my whole
life. I cannot remember a time when she was not there for me. Especially now,
when I feel I need her help more than ever, she is always right there to
support me and say the perfect words to make everything be okay. I owe it to
her to make it through nursing school and I hope by the time I make it to my
first day working as an RN I can be half the nurse she was.
